Month: March 2017

As long as the United States has existed, it has maintained complex and important diplomatic and military ties with Europe. Since the second world war, these ties have become increasingly important to the broader security of the world. Arguably the most important is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which began on April 4th, 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington DC. The premise of NATO was simple: the signatories would form an alliance, one that would bring their forces together in military exercises and on the battlefield.

On Friday, House Republicans pulled their proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as ObamaCare) from consideration. Seven years of alarmist rhetoric over a law some elected Republicans considered the downfall of the republic came to nothing. It's a good thing, too. The Republican replacement plan was a profoundly broken piece of legislation that misunderstood the ACA's real problems, bungled their solutions, and continued a pattern of duplicity that has run through the entire repeal effort.

Sesame Street. Unbiased news coverage. Train tickets to Atlanta. These are examples of programs run by government sponsored corporations. In most cases, these corporations are directed to help the public. Because of a lack of accountability, however, these organizations are also easily corrupted. Public officials can manipulate the purpose of these firms to benefit themselves rather than the people, as they are state owned and thus state controlled. State Owned Enterprises are used by nearly every nation to benefit their people, but because of their lack of accountability, they can also be grossly misused to pursue an individual’s personal agenda.

When college and university students consider how they will pay for their education they often have limited options: student loans, scholarships, financial aid, and work. With the rising cost of college and university tuition, these financial decisions weigh heavily on the minds of students. However, the financial stress of higher education can extend beyond tuition and housing. Students now need to confront the rising cost of textbooks. Textbooks, which may determine academic success in a course, are becoming increasingly expensive, ultimately creating an additional economic barrier to education.

Consider the avocado, the “alligator pear,” the foundation of guacamole, and essential ingredient in avocado toast. In the 2000’s, avocados began appearing throughout the United States, offered everywhere from Subway to the finest restaurants in New York. Avocado consumption has risen to the point that during the 2016 Super Bowl, Americans consumed nearly 139 million pounds of avocados. In fact, the production of the fruit is a billion-dollar industry.

Being young people who are interested in public policy is weird. There’s a persistent assumption that we don’t know what we’re talking about, or that we somehow don’t understand enough about the world to have an informed opinion. Further, though, there is a belief that our basic assumptions of how the world should work—that people working full-time should not live in poverty, that people deserve available and affordable health care—are a product of the naivety of youth. This is, needless to say, deeply condescending.